You can never get enough football practice on a hot August day …

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Like Ernie Banks used to say, it was a lovely day for two — practices that is — at two Big 12 colleges about 90 miles apart on Saturday.

First stop was in Lawrence, where I watched the Kansas Jayhawks take part in a spirited workout Saturday morning.

I was impressed with the athleticism the Jayhawks showed. They looked faster, stronger and appeared more competitive in the withering heat than any Kansas team I’ve seen.

Coach Mark Mangino said there is little comparison between his team now and where it was when he took over in 2002. It’s why — coupled with an easier cross-division schedule — that I think the Jayhawks will make back-to-back bowl trips for the first time in school history. Even with redshirt freshman Kerry Meier at quarterback, I like the Jayhawks to finish at least 6-6.

– After a quick stop for a real vanilla malt at the Russell Stover’s Ice Cream shop in Lawrence, it was back on the road for about 90 minutes west along Interstate 70 to Kansas State for an afternoon workout.

Fans in Texas probably don’t realize how remote Manhattan is. When you exit Interstate 70, it’s still about 15 miles before “The Little Apple” materializes. It’s quite a shock to see a college town jump up out of nowhere.

– The rivalry between Kansas and Kansas State appears alive and strong. Both school have large billboards dedicated for their fans near the campuses of the other schools.

The football rivalry has been spirited as Mangino snapped an 11-game losing streak to Kansas in 1994 before the Wildcats won last year.

But basketball should be even bigger with the arrival of Bob Huggins at KSU and five starters returning at Kansas to make the Jayhawks a likely top-five preseason hoop pick.

–I was also struck by the difference in access between Kansas and KSU. At Lawrence, I drove to practice field, nodded at a manager who was watching the entrance and walked in without a question.

At KSU, it was another story. In order to get my valued “practice credential,” I had to allow them hold my driver’s license and provide another form of identification. I guess you never would know what kind of crazed person would spend a Saturday afternoon in withering 105-degree weather watching players practice blocking and tackling. So maybe all that identification was really necessary.

But I still have had less trouble entering military installations or covering visits by U.S. presidents in my earlier journalistic career than I did KSU Snyder Family Stadium. This was certainly a first for football practice.

– I was struck by how odd it appears that former KSU coach Bill Snyder’s family has received the honor of having the school’s football stadium named after him.

There’s no doubt that Snyder was the most important person in the school’s football history. He turned a perennially sad-sack program into a national power that developed into a consistent bowl participant and nearly played for the national championship in 1998.

But Snyder’s reputation as a workaholic allowed little time for family matters. He routinely worked 18 or 19 hour days and often ate his meals long after midnight when he returned home.

So naming the stadium after his family might seem a little curious. But the Snyders definitely paid the biggest price in his work building the KSU program.

– A large crowd of a couple of hundred people attended the KSU practice. Some fans even got their own fall practice in by tailgating under awning in the parking lot. Their dedication was remarkable considering the sweltering temperatures. I think I would have been on a nearly lake or sitting somewhere cool if I had the opportunity.

New coach Ron Prince realized their commitment, particularly with the heat. He stopped to thank those remaining at the end before he started his media obligations.

But he was careful that he didn’t want his players to be thinking about the blast-furnace conditions.

“What heat?” Prince asked about the sweltering conditions.

– For those with a historic bent, the “Bloody Kansas Festival” is taking place this weekend in Lawrence. It’s a celebration of the area’s history as a center of guerilla warfare between Kansas and Missouri insurgents in the late 1850s as a prelude to the Civil War.

You can have Notre Dame-Southern California, Ohio State-Michigan and Texas-Oklahoma as far as football rivalries go because of gridiron tradition. But no football rivalry is based on as much historical hatred as Kansas-Missouri.

– On the way into Lawrence from Kansas City on Kansas 10, a great old football stadium can be found.

The Haskell Indian Nation University has a classic brick and concrete facility along the road. It looks like one of those old stadiums from a Marx Brothers movie back in the 1930s.

– Here’s a trinket I bet you didn’t know. One Kansas farmer produces enough to feed 128 Americans. Or at least that’s what a billboard on Interstate 70 for the Kansas’ Farmers Wives said this morning. You learn something every day.

– No practice at my next stop of Missouri until Monday. So I’m going to spend Sunday catching up on transcribing notes and developing graphical packages from earlier in the trip. I’ll catch the Tigers on Monday before heading south to Oklahoma State on the final leg of my trip.

But on my way home tonight, I’ll stop at the legendary barbecue restaurant Arthur Bryant’s. I’ll have a full report that would make my brother in food, John Griffin, take notice in tomorrow’s entry.